Chapter 556 – Blossoming Chaos

“Hey, did you hear something coming from upstairs just now?”

A member of the F Team, who was on patrol, looked up at the ceiling and said.

“Isn’t that where the Regimental Commander’s room is?” another team member replied with a knowing look and laughed, “It’s normal. Every time we patrol here, we hear something. Don’t worry about it.”

“So it’s the Regimental Commander… I get it.”

The first speaker nodded, sighed with envy, and said, “The Commander’s life sure is comfortable…”

“Yeah, very comfortable… But, I bet I’m not the only one hoping that bastard Commander leaves soon, am I?”

“Hahaha… Don’t worry, the whole team understands how you feel!”

“It’s really depressing…”

“And frustrating…”

“I feel like I’m about to crack. Lately, I’ve been feeling like I’m back to the early days of the disaster, living each day in agony…”

“Why do you say ‘back to’? Hang in there, buddy. We don’t need women to survive. You’ve got me, don’t you?”

“Shouldn’t you be the one hanging in there? I have no interest in conforming to your preferences…”

“Hahahahaha…”

The two F Team members laughed bitterly and then sighed in unison. Just as they were about to leave, they heard another thud.

“More noise?”

“The Commander really is full of energy…”

“I really hope he pulls a muscle or gets exhausted soon…”

“Stop talking about it. It’s all tears at this point. Besides, his misfortune doesn’t benefit us at all…”

With these thoughts, the two men walked away, full of emotions.

Just as they turned the corner at the end of the corridor, a shadow flickered past the window.

A gust of wind blew a tiny, sparkling fragment onto the windowsill, silently. If someone had been there and looked closely, they would have noticed it was a rice-grain-sized shard of glass…

…

Meanwhile, not far from the TV Station, in the midst of some ruins.

Bang!

A female zombie nimbly leaped over a second-floor railing. As she landed, the scythe in her hand precisely decapitated a staggering zombie coming towards her.

This zombie moved slowly but had unusually thick arms and nails as sharp as blades. However, in the face of her scythe’s wide attack range, it stood no chance to resist.

Moreover, the female zombie’s angle and timing of attack were impeccable, making her a born killer.

A flawless one-hit kill!

Despite the blood splattering, the female zombie seemed somewhat absent-minded.

Her gaze wandered around, seemingly searching for something.

“Over here!”

Suddenly, a figure appeared behind her, and a glint of cold steel moved towards Xia Na.

“So fast!”

Xia Na’s eyes immediately focused. Although the danger came unexpectedly, her reaction wasn’t slow at all.

Red-Eyed Nana instantly rose from the shadow at her feet, and her scythe, akin to a blood moon, swiftly slashed towards the figure.

Psychic Attack!

The figure’s movements froze momentarily. At this precise instant, Black Na, who had a strange smile on her face, turned around, aiming her scythe at the figure’s head.

“Senior Sister, a sneak attack of this level is useless against me!”

Red-Eyed Nana took a step back, merging with Black Na, and spoke with a smile.

At this moment, her voice sounded as if someone had spoken the same sentence twice with different tones and then played them back in sync.

It resembled an echo but had subtle differences.

The eerie tone, the scythe slicing through the air, and the fluttering hair as she turned made this girl seem like a witch walking out of hell.

However, with a “swoosh,” this powerful strike missed its target.

“Hehe, I’m not that naive! You Black Mountain Demon!”

“Who are you calling Black Mountain Demon! It’s just a side effect of separation, okay?!”

A laugh suddenly sounded from behind Xia Na, indicating that what she had struck was merely an afterimage.

“Tch, you’ve already mastered Ephemeral Beauty to this extent? And you just started learning it yesterday!”

Xia Na muttered, biting her lip.

“Whoosh!”

At that moment, a sharp whistling sound cut through the air, striking precisely toward Li Yalin, who was behind Xia Na.

Senior Sister’s face changed color as she quickly leaped back and then swiftly dodged to the side.

“Clang!”

A piece of rebar struck the spot where she had just leaped from, sending debris flying.

Xia Na promptly looked up, catching sight of a shadow leaping from the upper-floor darkness and darting toward her.

“Behind you!”

Ye Lian shouted.

Xia Na quickly turned around, only to find three Li Yalins suddenly appearing behind her.

“This time it’s Blossoming Chaos?” Xia Na frowned.

Indeed, after mastering her own advantages, Li Yalin’s power became vastly different from before.

Tricky, hard to handle.

Both Ephemeral Beauty and Blossoming Chaos relied on Li Yalin’s speed and her body’s flexibility.

After consuming a large amount of mutation snake gel, Li Yalin had essentially become an amalgam of a zombie and a mutation snake—a humanoid mutation snake.

Her bones and joints could flexibly dislocate; if anyone could twist themselves into a pretzel, it would be Li Yalin.

Not just her body—her arms and legs could also be twisted like a pretzel.

And this was just the beginning. As she continued to evolve, her bones and body flexibility were bound to undergo further changes.

Ephemeral Beauty was actually the simplest move. As long as her speed was fast enough, she could appear like an ephemeral blossom, suddenly showing up at one spot for a fleeting moment and then vanishing quickly.

Blossoming Chaos was much harder to achieve. It required Li Yalin to push her speed to the limit in a short period while maintaining rapid movement for some time, combined with her flexible and varied motions to create the illusion of several of her simultaneously.

But speed alone wasn’t enough. Whether they were zombies or humans wearing Infrared Night Vision Goggles, they could easily determine the real her through temperature.

So this move, for other zombies, was actually rather impractical…

But Li Yalin was different. She was now half a mutation snake, inherently equipped with a thermal imaging observation system…

“Which one is it?”

Xia Na’s eyes were glued to the three figures. Each one had the same expression, and their movements were identical, making it impossible to tell them apart.

This was just the basic version of Blossoming Chaos. In theory, if Li Yalin continued to get stronger, it wouldn’t be just three shadows; even three hundred shadows could become possible.

But for now, the likelihood of achieving three hundred was still extremely low.

“Which one is the real one?”

“Hehehe…”

Li Yalin’s laughter echoed from three different directions, making Xia Na even more anxious.

“…One for each!”

Ye Lian’s somewhat stammering voice came from behind.

A piece of rebar shot out from her hand, aimed directly at the leftmost Li Yalin.

Black Na and Red-Eyed Nana immediately split up, each charging toward the remaining two Li Yalins.

“Guess again!”

A voice suddenly came from behind Ye Lian.

Ye Lian stared blankly ahead, her hands now empty of any weapons.

Surprise! Among the Blossoming Chaos shadows, Ephemeral Beauty was also in play, creating a shadow that was a complete afterimage…

“Not necessarily…”

Ye Lian swiftly turned around, now holding a sniper rifle equipped with a silencer.

The silencer was something they had looted from Falcon Second Camp, perfect for her Thor rifle.

“Bang!”

A muffled shot rang out, significantly quieter than a normal gunshot.

Before anyone could even see what was happening, Ye Lian had fired the shot toward the ground mid-jump.

Using the recoil, Ye Lian propelled herself twenty meters directly backward into the air.

Simultaneously, a white blur shot out from the side, sending countless silver threads flying.

The immense power of the sniper rifle scattered building debris everywhere. Li Yalin, who had been hidden by her high-speed movements, was forced to reveal herself.

As soon as she appeared, Black Silk snared her, and Xiao Bai, with its limbs spread wide, pounced down from above.

Panda Fall!

“Hey! How can you guys double-team…”

“Boom!”

The impact of Xiao Bai’s massive body raised a cloud of dust, and the nimble Ye Lian landed softly, glancing at Xia Na beside her.

“What’s up, Ye Lian? You need to stay focused during training,” Xia Na said.

“Umm… I’m feeling a bit uneasy… Do you think… Ling-Ge is… starting to move away from us…” Ye Lian brought her fingers together, slowly pulling them apart, widening the gap, “growing distant?”

Xia Na paused for a moment. She mimicked Ye Lian’s gesture and then thoughtfully sensed her surroundings.

“It seems like it…”